Justine Bateman feels like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have turned playing the “victims” into an Olympic sport.
The “Family Ties” alum slammed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in a new post shared to Substack over the weekend, which she titled, “The Problem With Meghan Markle: It’s Not What She’s Doing, It’s the Victim Olympics Road She Took to Get There.”
“The problem with Meghan Markle (and her husband, Harry) is that every opportunity they have explored or exploited over the past few years has been due to their very aggressive Victim Olympics campaign,” Bateman wrote.
Bateman, 59, argued that there is an “immense” difference in acting that way “two years ago and doing it now” — years after they left the UK and stepped down as working members of the royal family.
“It’s 2025, and no one wants to see victims anymore,” she wrote. “No one wants to watch someone playact at something they didn’t earn. No one wants to go along with another’s ‘narrative’ anymore.”
Bateman, who even created a custom gold medal with “Victim Olympics” written on the ribbon, went over some of the accusations Meghan and Harry have made about the royals –– including that someone allegedly questioned their son’s skin color and that they were “not being protected” from media narratives.
“Meghan and Harry has the luck of societal timing with their cries of abuse at the hands of others. 2020-2024 was truly the Victim Olympics Era,” she quipped.
The “Violet” author wrote that the “gold medals” they won include their $100 million deal with Netflix, a reported $20 million four-book deal with Penguin Random House and Markle’s now-defunct $20 million deal with Spotify.
“The book deal was not because Harry is an incredible writer, the Spotify deal was not because either of them are beautiful orators or fascinating interviewers, and the Netflix deal was not because they are notable showrunners or producers,” she claimed. “These were simply the spoils of them crying out to anyone who would listen about the ‘injuries’ they had sustained.”
However, Bateman cautioned the couple that they now have to “earn [their] spot,” because it’s been five years since people began listening to their story.
“The public doesn’t want to listen to people who bemoaned their lack of privacy, and yet take every opportunity to be extremely public with whatever they’re doing,” she wrote.
“They are tired of seeing a couple who hated the Royal Family so much that they burned the bridge between them to ashes, only to ferociously cling to the titles they had as former members of that Royal Family.”
Bateman summarized her post by arguing that Markle, 43, and Harry, 40, have been “riding the fumes of a past Victim Era, in a new era now where victimhood has fallen far out of favor.”
“I believe everyone has a basket of skills and talents. I don’t believe either Meghan or Harry has taken the time to discover what is in their baskets,” she concluded. “If they were to take some time away, to enrich themselves and discover who they truly are, I think some interesting things could emerge from them.”
Reps for Harry and Markle didn’t return Page Six’s requests for comment.
Bateman is no stranger to sharing her strong opinions of Markle and Harry, however. She previously criticized them for helping victims of the Los Angeles wildfires in January.
“Meghan Markle and Harry are no better than ambulance chasers,” she wrote via X on Jan. 11. “What a repulsive ‘photo op’ they achieved. They are ‘touring the damage’? Are they politicians now? They don’t live here; they are tourists. Disaster Tourists. #PalisadesFire.”
A source later defended Markle and Harry’s activism and clapped back at Bateman for her “offensive” response.
“It’s offensive to Meghan and Harry that anybody would think this is merely a photo opportunity,” an insider told us in January.
The source pointed out that Markle — who moved to Montecito, Calif., with Harry and their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet in 2020 — was “born and raised in Los Angeles so this is, and always will be, home to her.”
“They have also dedicated countless hours to volunteering, long before the media even caught wind of their involvement,” the insider said, noting that the couple also “donated money and essential items.”
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